How high can you go?

With WW, I get 30 daily points and 35 weekly points. I use the weekly points spread out over the week or sometimes in one restaurant meal – there’s no rhyme or reason and sometimes I use them all and I sometimes I forget they are there and never use them. 

Yesterday was a 65 point day.  

No reason except I was snacking non-stop. No reason for that, except the snacks were there and I didn’t say no. I didn’t start the day with a protein-packed breakfast like I normally do so that was probably the start of the sugar roller coaster and it just continued all day.  I did track it though, strangely, I tracked it very dispassionately and matter of factly. I didn’t seem to care once I hit the 35 point mark and I didn’t care when I hit 65.  I wasn’t mad, sad, guilty or frustrated. I just felt like, “I ate it, so I’ll write it down”.  Weird.  This is the first time this has happened since I started WW and I honestly can see no reason. It wasn’t a binge as I didn’t eat all the points in one sitting or have an ‘urge’ to eat anyone type of food.

Some of it was good food: greek yogurt, olive oil and feta cheese on my salad, a glass of skim milk – some not so good: peanut M&Ms, a small container of Pringles.  I didn’t feel sick at the end of the night nor do I today.  It was a lot of high point food but not really a lot in volume.

I can’t make up those points or get them back so I am moving on. Today, I am back on track and I had my protein bar and apple for breakfast and I know I am good til lunch with that with no sugar lows or spikes.

In the past, this would have derailed me for several days or at least until the next weigh in….but today I can look at it and say, it was one day of bad eating in months of relatively good eating.  It wasn’t the right thing to do for any reason but it’s done and hopefully I can learn from it and recognize next time I am in that situation that I cannot handle not eating enough protein early in the day and cannot handle being around snack type foods.

Weigh In Week 19

Hanging in there. Taking one day at a time and trusting that the days add up into a good week.

It's an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny loss this week but they add up!

Earned this badge this week.  I joined FitBit in June 2012 so that's how long it took to get 4000 floors!  Which really, over 4 1/2 years does not seem like a lot does it? Hmmm....might need to rethink my excitement on this one :)

Muscle Weighs More Than Fat, Right?

I do not have a degree in science, biology, physics,  or anything at all, for that matter. Despite my  limited education, I am smart enough to know that the above statement cannot possibly be true.  Just like a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of bricks, a pound of butter weighs the same as a pound of whipped cream, a pound of potatoes weighs the same as a pound of peas. 

A pound of fat takes up more volume than a pound of muscle and therefore if two people weigh the same but one has a higher body fat percentage, that person will look bigger than someone with lean muscle despite their weight being the same.

Walking three or four days in a week or suddenly starting to exercise will not make a person ‘gain muscle’ when the scale goes up. They may have some fluid retention or inflammation if they are not used to exercising and over did it, but they did not gain 2 lbs of muscles within a few days or even weeks.

I love Weight Watchers. It’s where, many years ago, I learned about portion control. I learned that a serving of pasta was half a cup and not half a package, I learned a serving of bread was one slice, not 4 and that not all vegetables were created equal. When I first joined back in 1995, it was the program where you counted “choices”.  We were allotted 4-6 breads (which included starchy vegetables), 3-5 proteins, 2 milks, 2 fats, 2 fruits and unlimited non-starchy vegetables and 100 calories a day to cover incidentals or we could save up the 700 calories a week for a treat .  This was an easy and sensible plan to follow and it worked well, but even then I knew that I did much better when I stayed to the lower end of the bread choices and the higher end of the protein choices.

Everything else I learned about nutrition and exercise and physiology, I learned from my doctors and my own research.  Weight Watchers is not the place to learn about these things when they spout things like “muscle weighs more than fat” and in all fairness, their leaders and employees are not nutritionists, personal trainers or experts; they are just people who lost weight following the program.  But it does irk me when I read the posts in the Connect forum and members post things they were told by their leaders that are so misleading and sometimes downright wrong.

Ok that was my rant for today. It was driving me crazy because I must have read it a dozen times while I was scrolling through last night’s posts.

Week 18 Weigh In

The losses add up! 

First day back at Y since before Christmas and first time hitting 11,000 steps this year!!!

Every Little Loss Counts

Week 17 Weigh In

Week 16 Weigh In

I'm totally fine with this considering the lack of walking and the extra food (that means CARBS and SUGAR) over the holidays.

Back to reality this week and looking forward to a lower number next week!

Catch Up

Phew. Where has the time gone?

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. The week before Christmas was crazy busy at work and I worked late quite a few evenings then had to rush around getting personal stuff done as well. There's been quite a bit of family drama and stress over the holidays (more than the usual!) which contributed to lack of sleep because of worrying about other people and their situations when I can't actually control any of that stuff.  The stress, the odd eating hours and the lack of sleep culminated in a fibromyalgia flare up that started on Christmas Eve and was full tilt by Boxing Day and although, to a lesser degree, is still with me so both my emotional mood and my physical state are not in a great place, but it will get better :)

So I managed to keep my 11,000 step streak right up until December 24 then it all fell apart. The flare up was only part of the reason, the other part was that I took my fitbit off to wash dishes at my sister's hotel and then left it there for almost a week.  I did do some walking but am pretty sure it was nowhere near 11,000 steps and it wasn't recorded anywhere.  I am going to start back at the Y on Friday. I'm hoping that now I am back to work and in a routine for the next few days, I will sleep better and some of the pain will subside and my energy will return. It really is just time and patience when this happens.

In weight loss news, I weighed myself a few times over the holidays but never on my official weigh in day.  I was up and down 2-3 lbs each time so I'll wait until Thursday of this week (my normal weigh in day) and see what damage the holidays caused.  I won't hit Onederland as I wanted, and although disappointing, I know I will get there in a few weeks .... patience grasshopper!  I didn't put in the effort needed to get there the last few weeks and I knew that.

So I'll be back Thursday with my regular weigh in post.

Happy New Year :) and thank you for checking in on me!